Texas Officials: At Least 1 Traffic Death per Day Since 2000

At least one person has died on Texas roadways every day since November 2000, state traffic safety officials say.

The Texas Department of Transportation said that since Nov. 7, 2000, fatalities resulting from motor vehicle crashes on Texas roadways have numbered 59,388. The leading causes of fatalities continue to be failure to stay in one lane, alcohol and speed.

In 2016, the fatality rate on Texas roadways was 1.44 deaths per hundred million vehicle miles traveled, representing a 3.59 percent increase from 2015. The 2016 death toll of 3,773 was an increase of 5.45 percent from the 3,578 deaths recorded in 2015.

More than half – 51.47 percent – of the traffic fatalities in Texas last year occurred in rural areas. There were 1,942 deaths in rural traffic crashes in 2016.

The annual vehicle miles traveled in Texas during 2016 reached 261.994 billion, an increase of 1.5 percent over the 258.122 billion traveled in 2015.

Also in 2016, 265,076 individuals were injured in motor vehicle traffic crashes.

The agency recently launched a campaign to end the streak of roadway deaths in the state – #EndTheStreakTX.